| Mount Snow | |
|---|---|
Eastward view from the summit of Mount Snow. |
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| Location | Somerset / Dover, Windham County, Vermont, USA |
| Top elevation | 3,556 feet (1,093 m) |
| Base elevation | 1900' |
| Skiable area | 598.3 acres (2.421 km2) |
| Runs | 107 |
| Lift system | 19 |
| Terrain parks | 12 |
| Snowfall | 156" |
| Snowmaking | 80% |
| Night skiing | Yes, only on the Grommet (Small Terrain Park), and Tubing Lanes |
| Web site | http://www.mountsnow.com |
Mount Snow is a mountain and ski area in southern Vermont located in the Green Mountains. It is Vermont's closest big mountain to many Northeast metropolitan areas. It was cohost of the first Extreme Games in 1995 and host of the Winter X-Games in 2000 and 2001. It is currently owned by Peak Resorts.
The mountain is within the Green Mountain National Forest and operates under a special use permit from the U.S. Forest Service.
The resort is operated by Peak Resorts, which bought it along with Attitash, in February 2007.
Mount Snow is now home to the East Coast's first All Park Mountain Face by creating Carinthia at Mount Snow, which debuted in the 2008-2009 season. Carinthia is home to twelve parks, with both natural and man made features, containing over 125 features and two half-pipes. Carinthia at Mount Snow claimed home to the second stop of the first annual Winter Dew Tour as well as many other events including the Freeski Open. New for the 2011-12 season is the Bluebird 6-seat bubble chairlift. With this lift, Mount Snow will have three high-speed lifts in its main base area with a total uphill capacity of 8100 skiers per hour. This will greatly increase the time Mount Snow guests spend on the ski trails instead of waiting in lift lines. A bubble double chairlift had run over the Canyon slope in the 1970s.
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Summit Elevation: 3,600 ft (1,100 m)
Vertical Drop: 1,700 ft (520 m)
Skiable area: 490 acres (2.0 km2)
Annual Average Snowfall: 156 inches
Trails: 80
Lifts: 20 Total -- High Speed Six Pack: 1 - High Speed Quads: 3 - Fixed Quads: 1 - Triples: 6 - Doubles: 4 - Surface Lifts: 4 - Rope Tows: 1
Snowmaking: 80%
Night Skiing: Yes, only on the Grommet Terrain Park and Tubing
Trail ratings: Green circle (novice): 14%, blue square (more difficult): 73%, black diamond (most difficult): 13%
Mount Pisgah is the mountain that is known by many as Mount Snow. Mount Pisgah was purchased from its original landowner in early 1953 and on December 12, 1954, the mountain, renamed Mount Snow, opened to the public. Entrepreneur and dreamer Walt Schoenknecht owned the ski resort for many years and led its development into being one of the largest ski areas in the country.
In 1986, the Carinthia ski area was purchased and connected to the Mount Snow trails. Five years later, nearby Haystack Mountain Ski Area was purchased and subsequently marketed as being part of Mount Snow. Haystack was sold and closed in 2005.
In 1992, the first snowboard park in the East was established at Mount Snow, named Un Blanco Gulch. The park featured jumps, a half-pipe, quarter hits, spines, wedges, banked turns, and a buried van. "The Gulch" remained a staple of Mount Snow's freestyle terrain until the 2008-2009 season when all terrain parks were moved to the Carinthia area of the mountain.
In 2000, Mount Snow hosted the 4th Annual Winter X-Games. The Games shattered previous attendance records and drew in athletes from around the world. The Games returned to Mount Snow the following year.
Mount Snow's own Kelly Clark won the first American gold medal of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in women's half-pipe. She is a graduate of the Mount Snow Academy and the first athlete from Mount Snow to win an Olympic gold medal.
In January 2009, Mount Snow hosted the first Winter Dew Tour. It is the first action sports tour for winter sports and is owned and operated by Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports. With a summer tour counterpart that debuted in 2005, the Winter Dew Tour consists of three events in which snowboard and freeski athletes earn points over the course of the season for a shot at the year-end title. There are multiple events at each stop on the Tour, each including superpipe and slopestyle disciplines for both men and women. The events are televised live on NBC plus other coverage on USA, MTV, and MTV2. Many of the top athletes in action sports from around the world participated in the Winter Dew Tour. Athletes such as Shaun White, Hannah Teter, Tanner Hall, Andreas Wiig, Gretchen Bleiler, Simon Dumont, Sarah Burke, and Travis Rice will all be vying for the Dew Cup, awarded at season’s end.[1]
Mount Snow installed a new six-person high-speed bubble chairlift before the 2011–2012 season, built by Leitner-Poma to replace an old triple chairlift. the triple chairlift was called summit local.[2]
The resort plans to rebuild its base area in an architectural style patterened after a rural Vermont town, as well as constructing up to 900 housing units over a span of up to thirty years.[3]